1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a manually actuated input device for commanding machine- and/or computer-assisted control operations for kinematic motions of a real or virtual multipart object, including a force/moment sensor with which linear displacements in the form of translational movements in the direction of three axes, each standing perpendicular on the other, of a three-dimensional rectangular system of coordinates and/or rotational excursions in the form of rotational motions about these three axes are sensed and converted into commanded motions of the object to be controlled.
In addition, the invention relates to possible applications of the input device.
2. Prior Art
Such force/moment sensors are known, for example from U.S. Pat. No. 4,763,531 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,785,180. With the aid of one such force/moment sensor, accommodated in an input device, linear displacements and/or rotational excursions, i.e. three translational movements in the direction of three axes (X, Y, Z), each standing perpendicular on the other, of a three-dimensional rectangular system of coordinates and three rotational motions about these three axes, can be sensed and directly converted into commanded translational and rotational motions or velocities of the complete object to be controlled, e.g. for the control of automated and robotic, manipulator or similar systems as well as 3D computer graphics.
Modern computers are becoming increasingly more sophisticated in implementing complex real-time 3D motional control, requiring manipulation of the motions and possibly changing the sounds associated therewith to be controlled in accordance with human appreciation.
Known in this context from U.S. Pat. No. 5,757,360 A is a manually actuated input device for controlling a virtual object in a computer display. In this arrangement, the object itself can be moved in accordance with the movement of the egg-shaped manual input device, or dedicated motion patterns of the input device can be caused to action parts of the virtual object. The input device used for this purpose is based on the principle of an accelerometer which recognizes accelerations and patterns thereof from the motions implemented in predefined patterns of the complete manual input device in allocating a motion characteristic assigned to each acceleration or pattern to the object shown in the display. In this known input device provided only for controlling and animating virtual, but not real, objects, i.e. robots and figures, difficulties are encountered, however, in correctly implementing a manual movement assigned to a specific, desired acceleration pattern, especially when the object needs to be animated in a wealth of different variants. This is due to the motion of egg-shaped input device having no fixed reference base in free space for precise guidance and because only acceleration reactions are evaluated. Accordingly, this known input device fails to achieve animation of the virtual object with high diversification due to its low targetting accuracy, and thus the animation is lacking in realistic and natural presentation.